Kenn's corner

14 mayo 2017

Since early 2017 my children's book
'Grandpa, do you remember?' is available through Amazon. Is an
illustrated children's book where I explain in a clear and simple way
Alzheimer's disease and what a child can do to help a loved one who
suffers from this disease.

The book is based on actual facts, my
grandfather had Alzheimer's. For me it was a shock, since I live in
another country and I travel back once a year I can not see my loved
ones as much as I wish. It was at this moment that I put myself on
the skin of a child and I imagined how I could explain the disease in
an easy but understandable way.

Grandpa, do you remember? is available
in paperback and Kindle format also available in 5 languages: english, català, español, bokmål and deutsch.

13 mayo 2016

Earlier this week I read a post onCartoon Brew website about an exciting new project called Craft. Here is the article:

Printed art-of
books can be beautiful objects to own, but they are an inefficient
format for collecting the massive amounts of artwork generated for most
animation projects. A new Danish company, Craft, aims to solve that
problem by making all the artwork from animated projects available on
the subscription site ItsOnCraft.com, an “ever-evolving interactive art-of book” as the company puts it.

Craft, which launched on May 1, gives users unprecedented access to
art and conceptual materials from animated features, series, and games.
Among the items included (or to be included) is concept art,
storyboards, scripts, character designs, animatics, animation pencil
tests, background paintings, and more. The initial content on the
platform includes material from Cartoon Saloon’s Song of the Sea and The Secret of Kells, as well as the TV series Ernest & Celestine: The Collection and the online series The Reward: Tales of Alethrion.

The digital archive seems best suited to professional artists and
animation students who can use it to study and compare different
versions of scenes, look at source files to deconstruct scenes, and find
reference for their own projects.

“We know how long it takes to get an idea from script to screen—think
of all of the amazing and inspiring work that goes into the making of a
film that never makes it into the final product,” says Craft CEO and
co-founder Frederik Villumsen. “It’s all part of the process, but why
should that material sit on a shelf or languish on a hard drive
somewhere?” (Villumsen is also the CEO of the Danish animation studio
Nørlum, which co-produced Song of the Sea and Long Way North.)

Craft also aims to build a community around creating animation, and
encourages users to ask questions and engage directly with the creators.
The companies that use the service can add notes to the artwork and
answer users’ questions about the material they’ve made available. An
accompanying Craft Store will allow people to purchase merchandise,
prints, and other items, like 3D printed character figures.

While the offerings available on Craft are relatively thin at the
moment, the idea has real potential to evolve into something great.
What’s nice about Craft is that provides a benefit to everyone in our
community: students and pros can use it as an education and professional
development tool, fans have a new way to support and enjoy access to
projects they like, and content creators gain a new revenue stream since
50% of Craft’s revenue is redistributed among filmmakers who provide
content for the service.

“Early-bird” subscribers can join Craft for $6 per month, while group discounts are available to schools and organizations.

I subscribed some minutes ago and I didn't have time to go around so much, but it's really promising. Here are some screenshoots.

Character design from 'The Reward'.

Storyboard from 'The Reward'.

Backgrounds from 'Ernest and Celestine.

Concept Art from 'Spirit Seeker'.

The 'early bird' phase is still open, for only 6$ per month, an almost ridiculous price for what you willfindinside the website. The basic subscription is going to be 9,99$ per month.Enjoy!

03 abril 2016

Since last week you can download the Open Source version of Toonz, called OpenToonz. It's advertised as the software used to create Studio Ghibli films like Spirited Away and TV shows like Steven Universe and Futurama. On the website of Digital Video, creators of the software, we find the following information:

Digital Video, the makers of TOONZ, and DWANGO, a Japanese publisher, announced today they have signed an agreement for the acquisition by Dwango of Toonz, an animation software which was independently developed by Digital Video (Rome, Italy). Digital Video and Dwango agreed to close the deal under the condition Dwango will publish and develop an Open Source platform based on Toonz (OpenToonz). Effective Saturday March 26, the TOONZ Studio Ghibli Version will be made available to the animation community as a free download.OpenToonz will include features developed by Studio Ghibli (*Toonz Ghibli Edition) which has been a long time Toonz user. Through OpenToonz, Dwango will create a platform that will aim to have research labs and the animated film industry actively cooperating with each other.With this agreement in place, Digital Video will move to the open source business model, offering to the industry commissioning, installation & configuration, training, support and customization services while allowing the animators’ community to use a state of the art technology at no cost.Digital Video will also continue to develop and market a Toonz Premium version at a very competitive price for those companies willing to invest in the customization of Toonz for their projects.

I can not say too much about my experience. I've just installed the program and I customized the interface windows and some shortcuts.

The software is not 100% stable for now, but users have already begun to share knowledge and tutorials through the social media.

02 abril 2016

I'm working on my new website. I made this animated website header but I'm not going to use it. Export to Swfdoes not give problemsbutas Flash has already passed awy I have rendered to Html5. The result has not been satisfactory.

12 julio 2014

Let’s revive hand drawn animation! Let’s get the fun and ease back into 2D!

Animation Paper is a specialized software application in development.
Designed for the experienced and professional animator. Fast and
powerful - yet simple, intuitive and effortless to work with. Work
rough, quickly test ideas, then clean it up. Animation Paper will be a
ton of fun! Enabling new and life long students of animation to train,
learn and master the art of animation.

The person back Animation Paper is Niels Krogh Mortensen, an experimented danish character animator, graphic artist, creative software developer, game designer, animation producer and director. Two decades ago together with his friend and programmer Jakob Frandsen created the predecessor of Animation Paper, called Plastic Animation Paper. He now want to take the proven values of PAP, and with the help of you and the rest of the community, recreate it as a modern and awesome app for Mac and Windows.

21 junio 2014

Short and beautiful animation. Inspired by a visit to the Tyrus Wong exhibit at the Walt Disney Family Museum in August 2013. All the artwork was created using TVPaint 10.5 and Microsoft Surface Pro 2.

01 junio 2014

A long time has passed since I published the last post, but I raisefrom the ashes again, like thePhoenix.In all this time some interesting things had come, a Storyboard Masterclass (with Sherm Cohen ) and new ideas and projects that have appeared.

One of this projects, whichIamdedicatingmost of myfree time, ismy firstillustrated children's book. Is a pedagogical book aimed at children between 4 and 10 years. I explain in a simply and clearly way a disease that affects a part of the population and it is difficult to understand sometimes, adults too. In my familywe also haveaperson affectedwith this disease.

At the momentI cannot give more details, butthe bookwill be publishedearly nextyearin Norwayand a littlelater indigitalversion for therest of the world.

I am veryexcited about this project,andsacrificingmysociallife for it...but you know, it's what you haveif you are and illustrator or animator. :) And after the book...well, we talked aboutcreating anApp with the same story,with animationsand games, butthat is anotherproject andI'll talkabout itin a few months.

The way Iwork is as follows.I sketchin the traditional way, paper andpencil,scanner, I clean the linewithIllustratorand thencoloringinPhotoshop.

06 octubre 2012

10 junio 2012

A new John K's cartoon has appeared this week. In this case is for advertise some t-shirt designs he drew for an online shop called Stussy. The animation is brilliant as always. John animated the cartoon using ToonBoom's Animate program and worked virtually with some collaborators around the globe.